From what I have learned so far, I understand Oral History to be a way in which information and history is passed down from generation to generation through stories spoken to one another either informally or through interview. Shopes (2002, p.g 3) describes it to be “at its heart, a dialogue… encouraging the narrator to remember details seeking to clarify that which is muddled, making connections…challenging contradictions” and from this I have come to appreciate how incorporating Oral history into our projects could really elevate them in telling a story of the Captiol.

Having been to The Captiol Theatre I immediately knew that whatever project I decide to do, it has to include visuals. Even if that be photos of the building from decades before or simply the iphone videos we as a class took on the day we visited. The fact that this building is a cinema and has been dedicated to cinema for so long, it would only make sense to film a video based oral history around it so that the audience is able to visualize what stories they are hearing and can picture it more accurately. Having been to Screen Worlds (first) this exhibit was really helpful in showing me how engaging a multitude of media representations can be and that the more that can be incorporated into what I make (within reason), the better it could be (potentially). This could mean having just text on the screen with the audio of an interview, video/photo montages of the theatre and possibly archival footage, as well as the interviewee themselves along with music that suits the subject matter.  

Personally, after thinking about it, I would like to make a video based project that interviews students from our class in the present day about what we knew of the theatre and our experiences visiting it, as well as exploring its history through interviewing people who were apart of it and could have more insight into its history and evolution, so that there is a link between that the Capitol was, became and is now for us as students and audiences.

Reference List:

Shopes, L., 2002, “What is Oral History”, History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/